"Metricom to close Ricochet"
This is sad. I thought that this idea was strong enough to live in
some metropolitan areas at least. The problem (IMHO) is that VC's
often kill the idea by pushing the "big score/massive expansion"
rather than the "slow but sure wins the race" strategy. I can't tell
you how many CEO's I've talked to recently who have told me about
their board meetings over the past two years. All the same. Yelled
at for not expanding fast enough ("sure, we'll make sure the money is
there") followed by getting yelled at for having no cash ("why did you
spend all the money?").
I think this would be excusable if most of the VC's in the world had
never actually run a company before, but I've seen this behavior out
of almost all of them (not all, thankfully), including the ones who
have had harsh P&L responsibility in the past. hi ho.
Bryan Prohm, a wireless industry analyst for Gartner (market
research and consulting firm) has previously described it as "the only
logical Darwinian outcome."
Who is this guy and what's his rational for making that sort of
statement? I think he missed the point. I doubt he ever used the
technology.